By Tara Burghart
06jul04
CHILDREN born to obese women are more than twice as likely to be overweight by the age of four, according to a new study which says efforts to prevent obesity should begin at - or even before - birth.
While obesity is known to run in families, the study appears to be the first to follow children from birth until preschool to see how early the problem develops.
The study of nearly 8,500 women found that by four years of age, 24 per cent of children - almost one in four - were obese if their mothers had been obese during the first trimester of pregnancy, compared with 9 per cent of children - about one in 11 - whose mothers had been of normal weight.
After the researchers took into account such factors as birth weight - and the mothers' race, education level, and smoking during pregnancy - children with obese mothers were found to be twice as likely to be obese at the age of two and 2.3 times as likely at age four.
The research did not seek to determine why the risk of obesity increased when the mother was overweight.
Lead researcher Dr Robert C Whitaker, a paediatrician at Mathematica Policy Research in New Jersey, said likely factors include genetics, influences in the mother's uterus during the nine months of pregnancy, and eating habits and physical activity levels at home.
Previous research has indicated overweight women run a higher risk of developing gestational diabetes and of having babies with heart abnormalities and other defects.
That research, plus the latest study, indicates women who are planning to become pregnant should try to reach an ideal weight before conception, Whitaker said.
"It's an issue for both the mother's health and the child's health. Those are not easy to separate," he said.
Dr Rebecca Unger, a paediatrician in the Nutrition Evaluation Clinic at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, questioned whether the study - which involved only poor children - could be applied to the general population.
Still, she said the research underscores the importance of trying to prevent obesity by identifying risk factors early in life.
Other studies have shown that overweight children are likely to grow up to be fat adults.
Unger said it is easier to prevent or treat obesity early in life - when parents can reduce the amount of juice a child drinks, or take away a bottle from a toddler - than to keep a teenager from eating fast food daily with his friends.
The study was funded by the US Department of Agriculture and appears in the July issue of Paediatrics. It collected data on poor women and children enrolled in an Ohio welfare program.